By Morgan Phillips Brooke Curto, FOX News September 28, 2026

NEW YORK — Czech President Petr Pavel insists that NATO needs to outright demonstrate its willingness to respond to Russian aggression or else Moscow will continue to push the alliance and its European boundaries.

“There might be the time when we will have to shoot down some of these planes or unmanned vehicles that are testing our readiness,” Pavel, a retired general and former chair of NATO’s Military Committee, predicted in a conversation with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City this week.

Pavel said alliance members understandably want to avoid escalation, but risk sending the wrong signal as he warned Moscow views restraint as weakness and is testing allied defenses with its continued aggression.